MArch 23 - April 21, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 23, 6:00 - 8:00pm
From Plane to Space
Judith Murray and CoRdy Ryman
Curated by Lilly Wei
FiveMyles is proud to present this two-generation exhibition.
Painting, as we know, is not only not dead, but it is flourishing. And not only painting, but abstract painting. In this two-person show, Judith Murray and Cordy Ryman parade their respective chops in a far-ranging conversation about painting and art across more than 35 years.
Murray, a veteran abstractionist, weighs in with a monumental, never-before shown triptych, Messengers: Rogue, Luminary, Magician from 1983 -1985. Painted in her signature palette of red, yellow, black and white, her tactile, idiosyncratic, surrealistic geometries seem to hover in and out of the picture plane, emerging from a dark, complexly colored and brushed ground to project outward, as if to puncture real space, presciently moving beyond ideologies of flatness into brash, seductive illusionism.
Ryman, on the other hand, is a painter and sculptor, an artist who makes painted sculptures of sumptuous architectonic accumulations, his ground typically the space of the gallery. He came of age in less formally doctrinaire times, thanks to those who preceded him, like Murray, whose works paved the way for more heterodox, more expansive perspectives. His colorful modules—variously sized pieces of roughly painted wood—scrap and otherwise—lend his site-specific installations an appealingly mundane, DIY sensibility that pushes against high-tech sleekness and virtuality. But they also reflect its mutability with their own. Capable of countless permutations of variable dimensions, from the modest to the magisterial, their unfixed, shape-shifting ethos is very much part of today’s world of constant flux, change.
About the Artists
Judith Murray is the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award in Painting; a Guggenheim Fellowship; and The National Endowment of the Arts Award. Murray was inducted into The National Academy in 2009. Her work is in numerous notable public and private collections, including those of the United States Embassy in Mumbai; the royal family of Abu Dhabi; the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; The Brooklyn Museum; The Contemporary Museum, Hawaii; and the New York Public Library. Murray has been commissioned three times by Lincoln Center to create a print edition for its “Mostly Mozart” program. Her work is represented by Sundaram Tagore Gallery.
Cordy Ryman lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions occurred at the Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf; Tower 49 Gallery, New York; Zürcher Gallery, New York; and Artpace, San Antonio, TX, amongst other places. His work is in several distinguished collections, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY. cordyryman.com
GALLERY HOURS:
Thursday through Sunday, 1pm to 6pm; or by appointment.
DIRECTIONS:
Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, the Greenwich Collection, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, Humanities NY, and the Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Foundation.